Time For Bank CEOs Like Wachovia's Ken Thompson To Step Down

As the financial services train-wreck continues, CEOs are getting
better at saying they feel shareholders' pain. But actions speak
louder than words, and it's time some of these folks acknowledged
where the buck really stops--in actions, not words.

CEOs are happy to accept responsibility--and fortunes in annual
compensation--when times are good. Thus far, however, unless
forcefully shown the doors, they seem to show no willingness to
accept real responsibility when things go bad.

If CEOs get rewarded when companies like Washington Mutual,
Citigroup (C), Wachovia, UBS, Merrill Lynch (MER), Morgan
Stanley, GE (GE), Bear Stearns (BSC), et al, gamble and win--and,
boy, do they get rewarded--then they should get punished when the
same gambles lose. And don't think for a second that
"unprecedented market disruption" these folks blame for recent
losses is actually the cause of the tens of billions
they have vaporized. The cause is and was risky bets that
went bad.

Instead of saying he was "deeply disappointed" with Wachovia's
disastrous first quarter, in other words, Wachovia CEO Ken
Thompson should have said he was deeply disappointed, accepted
full responsibility, and tendered his resignation. Why? Not
because Ken actually made the bets that blew Wachovia's capital
to smithereens, forcing it to raise $7 billion in emergency
capital. Because Ken is responsible for those bets, and because
accepting that responsibility with actions, not words, is the
right thing to do.

The world won't change if today's bank CEOs resign--the new
senior executives will still take credit in good times and blame
"market forces" in the bad time. But at least some high-profile
people will lead by example and do what too many Americans don't:
accept full responsibility for their decisions.